Still playing make believe.

Tag Archives: Weather Phenomena

G-Man and I ate in T-Town at Ruby Tuesday the other night. As we waited for our food, we noticed a beautiful light show going on to the east.

“Do you think we’ll get rain?” I had all my fingers crossed. And my toes.

“There’s only a twenty percent chance.”

We happened to be seated in the restaurant between two very interesting groups.

One had fifty people (yep, 5-0!) in it. A wedding that had come to town. Several of the men had tattooed sleeves and one had the greatest beard. It was just on his chin, kind of skinny, hung about six or eight inches and every 1/2 inch or so had a rubberband holding it together.

The other group (of only ten or so) was at the horse show going on at the Fair Grounds. One had a National Champion jacket. Another was kind of young and just a little bit loud and proud of the job she’d done.

Very entertaining! 🙂

So between the pictures being taken on one side (wedding) and the brags being shouted on the other, we had quite a night.

It started raining about the time our food came. (Steak for my man, Louisiana Fried Shrimp–soooo good!–for me.) First the windows got wet, then the thunder and lightning started overhead and the wind started blowing.

The delicious garlic-cheddar biscuits had us half full already, but we dug right in. Then the lights flashed. Ack!

We didn’t want to be caught without electricity in a restaurant full of people, so we paid up and took off. When we got to the door, we could see the rain coming down hard and thick and fast. Kind of like a generous waterfall during a wet spring.

My man told me to stay put and went for the car. While I waited, one of the wait staff came up behind me. “Is it scary out there?”

I laughed. How could rain scare someone? Maybe it had been so long since we’d seen it, she didn’t know what was happening. “It’s only rain. The lightning is what’s scary and it’s pretty much past us.”

She looked relieved when another girl came up. “I hope the rain doesn’t hurt.”

That one stumped me. Maybe she thinking about acid rain. “Hurt?”

“You know. Sometimes it comes down so hard, when it hits you it hurts.”

Wow. I don’t know where she was from, but I’ve been in hundreds of rainstorms over the years and I’ve never had a raindrop hurt unless it was sleet and I was riding a motorcycle wearing a helmet without a face shield.

I did my best to make her feel better. “It’s not hailing, so I don’t think there’ll be much pain involved.”

“I hope not.” She still looked worried so I decided to change the subject. A little.

“I’ve just been saying, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ for every bit of rain we’re getting. We really need it. ”

“Uh-huh,” was her only answer, so I stopped trying.

G-Man pulled up about then, and I opened the door. No pain, but the rain fell so fast, I nearly drowned. The water was top-of-my-shoes deep on the sidewalk, so I took a deep breath and ran. I didn’t have to swim, but I thought I might have to.

On the way home, we passed two dead cars, flooded out by high water. Who knew it could rain so fast that the dry ground couldn’t soak it up fast enough?

A couple of days ago, #6, my nephew and I drove to Newkirk with Dad. That place seems like it’s a million miles away, but we made the time pass by getting Dad to tell stories.

The weather turned stormy as we drove. “Hey, Pops. Tell us about that tornado you went through in the topless cellar.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Well, Daddy was working with another man, pulling pipe outside of the Ford near the cemetery. They looked up and saw that twister on the ground, nearly on top of them.

The other man jumped in his pickup, but Daddy laid down flat in a low place and held on to a tree. He looked over at the pickup with the man in it, and the tornado was making it rock and bounce so hard, the guy couldn’t get the door open to escape.

“The tornado went into the Ford, skirting it on the north side. It caught one woman up in it. Later she said all she could see was dirt, flying around her. It put her down about a mile away with cuts and bruises, but not much worse for the wear.

“One of my brothers and I were working out on the farm, hoeing the garden. We looked up and saw that tornado coming at us. It looked like a limp rope, hanging out of the sky with the end flopping around. We ran to the only place close by–an old cellar with the top gone. When we stood in it, we could just see over the top.

“That tornado came right straight at us. We watched it until it was not too far off, and just when we thought it had us, it turned and went around us. Sure was a relief.”

I might not have chosen the best day to ask Dad to tell that story since the sky was full of lightning and dark clouds, but it made the trip to the Kay County Farm Service Agency seem much shorter. I’m looking forward to our next one!

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